SNAKES AND BLACKS

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 120, 17 November 1936, Page 13

SNAKES AND BLACKS

MATERIAL FOR FILMS

UNCIVILISED LIFE

DIRECTOR'S EXPERIENCES

A story of adventure in the "outback" districts of Australia—a tale of film-making in jungles and on islands, the "shooting'1 of a drama of white people set against a background of native life—was told on the Monterey by Mr. Charles Chauvel, producer and director of Expeditionary Films, who is on his way to America at the invitation of the company which handles the distribution of his productions, says the "New Zealand Herald." Mr. Chauvel is accompanied by his wife, a sister, Miss Jean Chauvel, and his daughter, Miss Susan Chauvel.

The film which Mr. Chauvel has just completed is "Uncivilised," in which Dennis Hoey, of England, and Margot Rhys have the leading parts. An important role is taken by Kenneth Brampton, whose work in Auckland in connection with stage production is very well known. Mr. Chauvel's step-ping-off point in film production for his company was "In the Wake of the Bounty," which took a year to complete and involved traversing thousands of miles of the Pacific, and a later film which he made was "Heritage." The policy of the company is to travel far afield—hence its title, Expeditionary Films—and to find real and living backgrounds for its productions, and it is steadily exploring the possibilities as film "locations" 'of waters and territories of Australia and New Zealand and other countries south of the Line. JUNGLES AND ISLANDS. "We spent several weeks on this film in the territory about Cape York," said Mr. Chauvel. "We 'shot' scenes enacted in the rain forests about the Daintrce River, where the rough jungles offered fine scenic and tropical backgrounds, and in the Hinchinbrook Passage, a very interesting part of the coast. The film, however, was not a travel picture, and these settings were used as backgrounds for the action. Native life was also worked in this manner—and the way the aborigines helped us was an eyeopener to me. I had heard a lot about them being an unintelligent race, but they are the very opposite. They were marvellous fellows to work with. Of course it was a little difficult at first to get them to understand exactly what was needed of them, but once they realised that they simply had to live for us their normal, natural lives, they gave us splendid support. "We brought a whole tribe of Weipa River aborigines to the Sydney studios to work in further scenes for the film, and you can guess that they , created quite a stir. But that was not all; they brought pythons with them as part of the contract! As a matter of fact, I had to buy the snakes as you buy timber and other things—by the foot— and since we paid 4s 6d a foot for them, the blacks brought many more than we needed. They—the snakes and the natives—caused a small sensation in Sydney, and almost struck terror into the hearts of the people living close by to the studios, until it was realised that the blacks were really very kindly-disposed and warm-hearted people, and that the snakes were being kept well under control. SNAKE IN AEROPLANE. "They had a wonderful time during their stay in Sydney. We took them up in aeroplanes—and I remember how one pilot came downl pretty quickly, the reason being that one of his dark passengers had taken his snake up with him- they often used to carry them about in their shirts to keep them warm. In the film, aborigines are seen biting the heads off live snakes and cooking them on their camp fires." The company also went to Central Australia "on location" in the stony desert areas. Mr. Chauvel believes, in fact, that the production embodied the most ambitious attempt yet made to bring the wild "outback" territories of Australia to the screen as a • anvas on which to base a drama.' Those weeks in camp in the desert and jungle were not without incident that was unrecorded on the film. The worst experience which the company underwent in the north was the work in howling gales in the Hinchinbrook Passage, where a comparatively small launch was used. "We had an uneasy time one night, when the whole of the awnings on the boat were ripped away by the wind, and bedclothes were whisked out to sea," recalled Mr. Chauvel. "After these squalls we would get terrific heat, sandfiies, and mosquitoes. But our faithful blacks helped to make things brighter, bringing us delicious crabs and excellent fish to eat, fresh from the reefs and mudbanks. I remember another anxious time we had, when one of our party was bitten by a snake. We were all very much concerned, but the victim was operated on by an aborigine, who: sucked the wound, after cutting it with a knife, and then applied a poultice of mud mixed with the juice of certain leaves. That cured it very quickly. ANCHORED TO GROUND. "We had our headquarters for a time on Palm Island, where a Roman Catholic mission station is established —and very firmly so, in a literal sense, for the main building and outhouses are anchored to concrete slabs set in the ground with great hawsers to prevent them being swept into the sea, as two other stations had been done on nearby islands." Mr. Chauvel's visit to America is at the invitation of Universal Films, the company which has been distributing his productions. The Hollywood headquarters of the company showed great interest in his earlier films and in the success in Australia of "Uncivilised," and cabled him to visit Hollywood as their guest to "brush up" on modern production methods and discuss plans for new films and their distribution. Mr. Chauvel will investigate also dialogue and story methods, in which he considers there has been a weakness in past Australian pictures. He mentioned that he was particularly interested in the Maori people, and believed that in New Zealand there were great opportunities for film production.